The Maiden Girl: Numero Duos
by Zutarain123
Summary: The sequel to 'The Maiden Girl.' After Zuko and Katara get married, a random stranger shows up on their doorstep, needing their help. What will they do to help, and will they get out alive?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Says me.

Title: The Maiden Girl: Numero Duos

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><p>I was enjoying the entire reception. Everyone was so happy. They were all enjoying the entertainment, the food, and each other. No fights had happened yet. Even with Toph there! Well, I guess that she felt better not wearing the dress that was picked out for her. That made one of us. Not that I didn't love my dress, it was just a little heavy. With the incredibly high heels that Zafirah forced upon me, it's rather amazing that I can even walk. Seriously, did I really need to wear 3 inch heels that no one would see? Oh well. I can't help that now.<p>

I turned to Suki and starting talking to her. While I was listening to what she was saying, I slipped my shoes off. It felt so good, I almost moaned. But Suki had no idea what I was doing, so I suppressed the urge to do so. Zuko came and sat beside me, with two plates in his hands. He had gotten me food! How cute! He sat one down in front of me and started eating his. Suki saw, and excused herself to get some food.

The food was good, too. Zafirah did a good job finding the caterer. Not only did it have Fire Nation and Water Tribe foods, it also had Earth Kingdom foods, too. There weren't very many people who really knew the cuisine of the Air Nation, so Aang just had an all-you-can-eat salad buffet. I didn't know if he would find that offensive or not, but he seemed to enjoy it. He was either at Toph's side, or he was getting more salad.

Zafirah stood up after about 15 minutes of people eating. She was making her speech as my maid-of-honor. "I just want to tell you that these two people right here," she gestured to me and Zuko, "are perfectly perfect together. Even though I haven't known them as long as some of you have, I just know that there really couldn't be anyone else that would go well with one of these people than each other. Katara was really stressed out throughout the entire time, leading up to a few hours ago when she walked down the aisle. Well, maybe even then she was. But, I wouldn't have known. She just looked so beautiful, calm, and collected. For the little time that I have known her, she was always there to help anyone and everyone. Even if it was random strangers, she would be there. One time, she helped 15 elderly people across the road- one at a time. So, I know that during their marriage, she will always be helpful, and a great person."

I applauded with everyone else, and gave Zafirah a hug. "What?" She grumbled. "I just made it up off the top of my head. I forgot to make something up. I laughed lightly when she said that. Zuko pulled me in for a kiss as the best man started his speech. It was good, but I wasn't really listening. Though, I did catch the part when he said that Zuko was the kind of person to 'sneak into more than one situation that was impossible to get out of, and disappear like smoke.' That made me remember the time when he was supposed to get a fitting for his tux. He ended up in a tree outside of the palace. When I chuckled at the thought of it, Zuko looked at me with an eyebrow raised. I didn't say anything, just giggled some more.

It was time for Zuko and me to cut the cake. We stood up in the front of the room. When we caught sight of it, I gasped very loudly. Zafirah had not only outdone herself with the food, her speech, and all the reception stuff that she did. But this, this was absolutely beautiful. There were six tiers that were alternating blue and red. On the top was a blue and red yin and yang sign. Underneath it was a word. It seemed to be a combination of my name and Zuko's. '_Zutara' _it read.

I just stood in awe; I didn't want to cut it. It seemed that Zuko was thinking the same thing that I was. Aang walked up closer to it and attempted to read it. Nothing but nonsense came out of his mouth. But, I shook myself and grabbed the knife. Fearlessly, I cut into the top tier and sliced two pieces. Zuko nicely fed me my piece, then, I shoved his in his face. He chocked on his own saliva, and then he laughed, and shoved the rest of mine into my face. We both laughed as we attempted to get the icing off of our faces.

Then, the dancing came. You know how the newlyweds are supposed to have a first dance? Yeah, we kinda both sucked at dancing, so we were screwed. But, Iroh had thought of that, and made us take dancing classes. We learned the first dance for both of our nations. Because we really didn't want either of the peoples to get mad, we found a way to incorporate both dances into one song. That was really hard, but we found a way to make it graceful. It was a little tricky, because of my dress. I mean, it wasn't huge or anything, but we had practiced with just our regular clothes on, so it was complex. The dipping was the hardest part.

We did end up dancing with our "parents." Since Zuko's mother was currently missing, he danced with Gran-gran. I danced with my dad. He was beaming the entire time. Then, Suki danced with Zuko whilst I danced with Sokka. It was a weird tradition that we had in the Water Tribe, to dance with one's siblings. Because we really didn't want to invite Azula just for one dance, Suki did it for her. She was close enough to a sister to any of us. After that, we didn't have anymore weird dances. It was just some random popular music playing while everyone who wanted to dance, however they danced, could go and danced. I was never still during the slow dances. Someone always wanted to dance with the bride. But, very rarely was it Zuko. He was being dragged off by any and every woman there. I thought I saw Sokka dance with him, too.

In the end, the wedding was a huge success. Sokka learned some horrible pick up lines from the random group of guys that he was talking with, and attempted to get Suki's attention with them. I knew already that Suki liked Sokka, but she did a really god job at not laughing completely in his face at them. Aang was always with Toph; but she managed to get rid of him. Iroh really enjoyed talking to Gran-gran. She did too. I think that they just liked talking with someone who was wise, like themselves.

Once all the guests left the hall, Zuko carried me to his room. And then, I can't tell you what happened next. It would ruin your pure little minds. But, I will tell you this, we woke up the next morning completely happy.

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><p>AN: No, it's not over. I will write more. I just stopped there because I wanted to. And, THANK YOU AWESOMELICIOUSNES FOR THE AMAZING TITLE FOR THIS STORY! EVEN WITH THE SARCASM! XD


	2. Chapter 2: The Morning After the Wedding

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Nothing do I own. The thing I own is nothing.

Chapter 2: The Morning After the Wedding.

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><p>I was awaken to the sound of Zuko snoring. It was cute, but after about ten minutes of just laying there, it became annoying. Oh well, I was going to have to get use to it. Zuko was most likely going to be snoring every time that I get up, if he doesn't get up with the sun.<p>

"Zuko," I said, elbowing him in the ribs, "get up you lazy bum! Stop acting like Toph! She can do that all by herself."

He groaned dramatically, clutched at his injured side, and rolled to face me. "Why should I? It's not like I have work or anything! I told Uncle to let me have the next couple of weeks off. Besides, I'm still tired from all the dancing we did last night. I am going back to bed." Zuko flopped ungracefully on his face, and proceeded to fall back asleep.

"Ugh," I grumbled. It was too early for this. When I checked the clock, it was 8. We had to host a brunch for our close family and friends at 11. That was three hours away. Thinking about it a little, I re-elbowed Zuko, and then went into the bathroom. I had to use some ninja skills and duck under the pillow that he had thrown. It took Zuko two hours just to get ready, and the guests were probably going to wake up soon, so at least one of us would have to greet them and make small talk. 'Not it!' I called in my head as I started my shower. The warm water felt nice after all of the dancing I did. It was amazing that I could still walk.

Grabbing one of the incredibly fluffy towels that inhabited the palace, I dried myself off, put on a robe, and then walked back into the bedroom. Zuko was back asleep on the bed, so I threw my wet towel at him.

"Hey! That's not how you should properly wake up your new husband!" Zuko complained as he threw the wet towel onto the floor. I picked it back up, then crawled up next to him on the bed.

"Of course! What in the entire world was I thinking? This is how I should do it!" I leaned close to his face, as if I was going to kiss him, but I punched him in the stomach instead. "Why would I think that you would wake up any way else," I mocked as he held his stomach, clearly in a great amount of pain. "Now get up and get ready!"

As I walked into the closet, I turned to see Zuko getting up, still holding his stomach and muttering under his breath. Then, I turned my attention to the matter of my clothing choice for today. Blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, or red? 90% of my closet was blue. Zuko and Iroh insisted that I get _some_ red, since I was going to be the Fire Lady. But, there were still a lot of my outfits that hadn't come in yet from the tailor. So, I still had all the blue. Blue looks so good on me, but so does the red. This is the fight that I have in my mind every morning. Before it wasn't as bad, but I was now the Fire Lady. Should I wear red to support my new country, or blue because really, no one important was going to see me today?

When I started to grumble under my breath, I heard a knock on the door. I walked out to hear that Zuko was taking a shower, so I got it. It was a servant. She held out a box, and said, "This is a gift from the General Iroh. He said that he would love it if you wore it to breakfast today." I thanked her and shut the door.

It was wrapped in some pretty blue paper. I ripped it off and, lying in the middle of some blue tissue paper, was a beautiful red and blue dress. Gently picking it up out of the box, I studied the pattern on it more. There were spirals and splashes of reds and blues. I couldn't put it into words, it was that beautiful. Remembering the cake last night that Zafirah made, I thought that she and Iroh were in cohorts. They would have thought up the entire idea of the cake with an almost matching dress. Still, I loved both of them, and the things that they did. Couldn't they just once stop trying to mess with everything that I did? Oh well.

Zuko came out of the bathroom, dressed up in his regular clothes. Apparently, Iroh didn't have anything special made for him. So I was the special one.

"Zuko! Look what Iroh got for me!" I lifted the dress all the way put of the box so that he could examine it. He looked it over carefully, like it was a bomb that would explode if he cut the wrong wire. Then, he proceeded to look my face over.

Slowly, as if talking to a small child, he said, "It looks like a new dress." I had to resist the urge to smack my palm to my face. It might have left a hand mark. Hey, it's happened to Sokka! I didn't want that to happen to me too.

"Yes, it is. A very nice, new dress, isn't it? One that Iroh really shouldn't have gotten me," I said, slightly swaying as I pressed the dress against myself.

"Well, you'll look beautiful in it, so do I have to care?" Zuko asked as he leaned in and gave me a peck on the lips.

In mock offense, I pressed my hand against my chest and said, "Am I not normally beautiful? I have to wear pretty dress in order to be beautiful?" Zuko didn't catch ANY of the sarcasm in my voice, and started freaking out.

"That's not what I meant. I mean of course you are normally beautiful, it's just that if you put that on, then you'd be more." I started laughing at his cute stuttering. He stopped when he heard it.

"I was just kidding! Geez, if you can't sense sarcasm, you need to hang around Sokka more. Now, can you go see that everything is ready for the brunch while I get ready?" Zuko walked away, grumbling under his breath about how women take forever to get ready. I grabbed my still wet towel from the floor and threw it at him yet again.

A/N: Sorry this took forever to get up. I actually wanted to write more, but I thought that this would be a good place to end the chapter at. Just know that I am now working on the next chapter. Yay! XD


	3. Chapter 3: Wedding Presents

Disclaimer: Do I really have to say this every chapter, one-shot, etc.? I OWN NOTHING!

Chapter 3: Wedding Presents.

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><p>While I was getting my hair presentable, Zuko came back. He grumbled around in our bedroom for a little while, then came into the bathroom, where I was. I looked at him in the mirror, and saw the annoyance on his face. I hadn't taken <em>that<em> long to do my hair, did I?

Turning around, I asked, "Zuko, what's wrong?" He seemed to be at a slight loss for words.

Finally, he responded, "Let me just say this; that dress isn't the only thing that Iroh got. And it certainly isn't the only present that we got." It took me a second, but then it clicked. Our wedding presents. We were going to open them today. And by the look on Zuko's face, we certainly got a lot of them. I groaned, not wanting to have to open so many.

"Well, I'm almost ready. Once my stupid hair cooperates, we can go greet everyone as they wake up." I turned back to the mess called my hair. It was horrible. After my shower, it frizzed. Really badly. After some attacking, Zuko took over. He could always make my hair pretty, even when the best stylist couldn't. He made it not as poofy, then put it up into a bun. I have no idea how he did it, but every time, he made the mess of my hair look beautiful.

We left the room, and headed towards the non-formal dining hall, where the brunch was going to be held. Let me just say that when I walked in and saw that the entire fall wall was covered in presents, I nearly exploded out of shock. That wall wasn't very small, and it was floor-to-ceiling decked out in presents. Yes, I knew that Iroh was royalty, and that he owned his tea shop, and everything, but those presents, just by the size of them, would have been worth more than I could have ever imagined.

Iroh suddenly walked out from the behind the presents,(they were three dimensional) and spotted us. He finished his conversation with the horror-struck servant, (please don't be more presents) and strolled over to us. There was a clear look of amusement on his face when he looked at us. We did still have look of shock on our faces, but we attempted to wipe them off, with small success.

"Hello, you two! Zuko, I've seen you already this morning, but how is the happy newlywed wife this morning? I heard what you guys were serving for breakfast, so I assume that you guys are going to love it! And, if I must say so myself, you guys are going to be pretty preoccupied opening all of those presents. Don't forget, those are just mine. Everyone else hasn't brought theirs down yet, so there's going to be more. Oh, how I love presents! Giving them, or receiving them, it's quite fun." Zuko passed out. I don't think that he could stand to hear that there were more presents than the ones that we had already stared at earlier.

By the time that Zuko managed to return to the real world, Aang and Suki had already come down for the brunch. They had just laughed at the unconscious Zuko, then gaped at the giant pile of presents. I laughed at their ignorance. We sat down near a smaller giant pike of presents. There was a present that looked like someone had wrapped a desk in wrapping paper, not even bothering to make it look different. Suki told us jokes about how weird Sokka is when he is drunk. I've had experiences with Sokka when he is tipsy before; I couldn't imagine how hard it would be to deal with a completely drunk Sokka. I took pity on the poor girl. Then again, she did agree to marry him...

When Zuko fully regained consciousness, we moved our party into a small sitting room so that Zuko wouldn't have the opportunity to faint (he said fainting is for girls; he passed out) again. After about a half an hour, Iroh joined us, He was still smiling like a madman, but no one seemed to notice. We all chatted around, waiting for the few other people to get their lazy butts out of bed.

Suddenly, we heard a thunk. Then, some dragging noises. I wondered if an unconscious body was being dragged into a closet. There was a grunt, then the door went down. Toph and Zafirah stood in the doorway with a pissed off Sokka in between them. They dropped him, and his face met the floor with a delightful smack.

"He had a migraine and wouldn't get up, so we brought him here for you," Zafirah said as she walked on his back to get inside.

"No need to thank us," Toph said sarcastically. She too walked on Sokka as she went into the room. He grunted in pain, but made no move to get up off the floor. His face stayed firmly planted in the floorboards, and he didn't move at all. It was like having a dead person on the floor. Not an unconscious body, a dead body.

"So, have you guys seen the mountain pile of presents yet? It's pretty scary," Suki said.

"Well, I can't see, but I can "see". But, no, I haven't "seen" them yet." Toph always had to say something about her blindness, even thought we all knew, very well, that she was blind.

"I haven't either. But, knowing Iroh, I am guessing that the entire dining hall us over-flowing, isn't it?" Zafirah asked. Oh, how right she was, and she didn't even know the half of it.

There were muffled words coming from the general area of Sokka's head, and they sounded like they were agreeing with something. I assumed that he was agreeing with Zafirah. We were all together then, so we could get the brunch thingy started.

We all went to the formal dining room, since the other one was kind of completely full of presents, for the brunch. The table was completely covered in food. There were various kinds of foods; Water Tribe, Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom, even some Air Nation stuff. It was amazing, the stuff that the palace cooks could whip up. Especially we had parties, weddings, or brunches. They always came through for us. Then again, it is their jobs... needless to say, it was delicious.

Somehow during the course of the brunch, Sokka had managed to eat all of the meat (10 pounds), several large rolls (11 of them), and drank nearly 17 big glasses of wine. All of that in under thirty minutes. And he still talked, too! I have no idea where he got his manners from.

After the, delightful, meal was over, it was time for Zuko and I to open our presents. When we walked into the other dining room, scary full of presents, there were indeed more presents. Not too many, just 6 or 7. But, when we walked in the room, Sokka's jaw dropped, Toph muttered something about 'lazy, rich people with too much time on their hands' and Zafirah simply smirked, because she had called it.

"How come we didn't get that many presents at our wedding, Suki? I mean, my dad isn't Iroh, but he's the chief of our tribe! He should have been able to give us a bunch of worthless crap, too!" Sokka whined in Suki's direction. She tried to comfort him, but he just went into a corner and started growing mushrooms (A/N: OMG! Ouran High School Host Club reference!).

"Hey! It's not all worthless crap! It's stuff that Zuko and Katara will need in their new lives!" Iroh defended his massive pile of, indeed, worthless crap.

"Uh, Uncle? Katara and I already have everything that we are going to need. We're going to live here, at the palace, so we kinda don't need anything else," Zuko said, trying to make Uncle take back a lot of the presents.

"Oh, but you see, I had already put that into consideration when I bought these gifts. These presents are everything else that you will want/need!" Iroh smiled mischievously. I groaned, and Zuko looked pale. Well, paler than he usually was. The pile of presents probably looked like a giant pile of pain, torture, and paper cuts to him right then.

There were so many things, and almost all of them quite useless, and three hours later, the giant pile of presents had become a bigger pile of wrapping paper. Iroh had gotten us a desk, actually, four to be exact. Four each. He had actually divided the pile in half, one side for me, the other for Zuko. There was a small pile of gifts that both of us could use, but it couldn't compare to the other piles.

I had gotten 84 red dresses, 58 blue dresses, 32 purple dresses, and 28 dresses that had both blue and red on them. And those were just my formal dresses. There were so many just everyday dresses, shirts, skirts, pants, and shoes that I couldn't count. Zuko had gotten clothes, too, just not in as great quantities as the clothes I had gotten.

Some of the stuff (like 1% of it) was actually going to be useful to Zuko or me. We each got some journals, lots of stationery, and I got a hawk so I could write messages to Suki or Sokka or even Toph, and it wouldn't have the possibility of getting damaged at sea, eaten by rats, or intercepted by Iroh.

While we were unwrapping stuff, Suki and Toph had gotten into a heated argument over the proper way to wrestle an attacker into the ground. Aang had gone off for a walk in the gardens, and to possibly meditate. Sokka, however, had dove underneath the ever-growing pile of wrapping paper. He had jumped under it about an hour into unwrapping, and he hadn't resurfaced by the time that we were done. Me, being the worried sister that I was, started to rip it apart to find him. Zuko and Iroh joined in the hunt for him.

Finally, after 25 minutes of searching, we found him. Asleep. He had made a cave in the paper, and nestled down for a nap. I was surprised that he actually had air, considering that he was in there for two hours, and was relatively close to the middle of the pile.

Suki rushed over when we had finally found. She had been freaking out over the entire thing, ever since we noticed that he wasn't present anymore. He walked over, and she totally and completely started yelling at him like he was a little kid. It was quite amusing to watch. She would scold and reprimand him, and smack him lightly on the arm. Then she started to really smack him, as if she was trying to knock some sense into him, which we all knew that he needed that to happen to him.

Out of nowhere, a servant came into the room, and interrupted Suki's rant.

"I'm so sorry to interrupt, but there is someone here that wants to see you, Miss Katara." She said, curtsied, and then left.

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><p>AN: Sorry, that took me forever to get out, but here it is! And you'll never guess what I am going to do in the next chapter. I'll never know if you know what I know that I know what I am going to do unless you tell me in a review that you know what I know about that I know I am going to do next chapter! (Confusing, huh?) Oh, and BTW: CLIFFY!


	4. Chapter 4: Revanche Xue

Disclaimer: Do I really have to say this every chapter, one-shot, etc.? I OWN NOTHING!

Chapter 4: Revanche Xue

A/N: THIS CHAPTER IS DEDICATED TO MY FWIEND AWESOMELICIOUSNES BECAUSE THIS CHAPTER IS INDEED ABOUT HER!

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><p>Zuko has a pondering look on his face. I followed the servant to the main entry hall. She curtsied, and opened the heavy, oak doors to reveal a girl with long, black hair. Her clothing absolutely screamed Earth Kingdom. On her face was a pair of silver framed glasses that actually accentuated her face more than it made her look like a complete and total nerd.<p>

"So, this is the palace, eh? I thought it would be more spectacular since you guys own all of the Fire Nation. Then again, I really shouldn't get my expectations up. I've heard that the more famous and wealthy you get, the more it goes to your brain, and less of your brain there is." Zafirah walked in while the strange girl said that, and she now looked at the girl with a smirk of appreciation on her face. My jaw dropped, insulted, when I realized just how well she would fit into our group of strange people.

"So, random person, why have you com here? Can I call you random person? Or would it be random? Or person? How about Evany? I'll call you Evany! That sounds nice." I grabbed Evany's arm and started dragging her into the dining hall that we were in before. Zafirah grabbed her other arm and helped in the process of dragging.

We burst into the room with me shouting, "Guys! Meet my new friend Evany! I found her on the street!" I turned to Zuko and asked, "Zuko, can we keep her? Please?"

"Unhand me you heathen! My name is not Evany! It's Revanche Xue (A/N: Say like re-vahn-shea shoe-ey), most bored Earthbender on the face of the earth! And, now I am out for revenge! I have come to suck food from you and provide sarcastic entertainment!"

Toph and Zafirah had giant smirks on their faces. They seemed to have already accepted Evany, Revanche, whatever, into their group. Sokka looked shocked, because his job was being taken over by some random person off the street. Suki and Zuko both had an eyebrow raised, but said nothing. Iroh sat in his chair, giggling like a schoolgirl. I laughed, because it was one of the funniest things I had heard in a long time. Revanche just stood there, her head held high, as if she was the queen of the Earth Kingdom.

"So, Revanche, you never told us exactly the reason you came here. There was a lot of vague explanations in there. And, most of the stuff that you said you were going to do , we already have someone doing that." Zuko pointed in the direction of Sokka, who immediately looked offended and stalked out of the room. "He's also good in the drama department," Zuko added sarcastically.

"I heard that!" Sokka said from behind the door.

"Well, if you are going to listen at the door, you might as well just come back in and sit on a chair!" I called to Sokka. We heard a mumbled ' fine' and Sokka walked dejectedly back into the room, and sat in a chair facing the wall.

"Anyways, what are you doing here, Revanche?" Zuko asked once again.

"I have com to have my revenge on the people who captured my family and murdered them," she said, almost proudly. We all looked confused, so she sighed and started telling her life story.

"My parents were very wealthy nobles in the Earth Kingdom. I had two elder brothers, and no one else. They were always beating me up, so I started doing it back. At first, it was just weak little attempts, but once I did it more and more, I became stronger and more agile. Soon, it was them who were crying out in pain, not me." She smiled an evil smile. "Because they youngest one was 4 years older than me, they went off to get earthbending training. I begged my parents to let me go with them, but they refused. They wanted me to become a lady. Pshaw, like I would ever do that completely voluntarily.

"I didn't want to make my parents angry, so I forced myself to act excited when they got the tutor for me. Of course, I had to learn how to actually become a lady, because she report back to my parents, so I can now eat perfectly amazing at any national dinner, curtsey, greet someone from any country, and a whole butt load of other useless crap. Continually, I was being told that my friends were all learning how to do all the same stuff, so I just let it go. Until, I met up with them, I learned that I had gone so far in my training that I honestly wasn't myself anymore. So, I ended up losing them all.

"When my brothers came back from training, 2 years later, I would force them to train me or else I would tell our parents about all the things they lied about. They knew what penalty my parents would give them, so they stayed true to their word and taught me. I had become a true prodigy, and soon, I had beaten both my brothers in physical strength and earthbending abilities.

"Once they were both 18, I was 14, they were shipped off to become soldiers for the Earth Kingdom. I was left alone with my parents. That's when the weird stuff started happening. First, my dad was almost always gone for meetings. No that it wasn't like that hadn't happened before, but he was gone more often than he was home. My mother was no better. She started to have an affair with some other random Earth Kingdom diplomat. So, I almost always had the house to myself. It was rather lonely having the giant Xue mansion all to myself. Once, my dad left for a 2 month long trip with some rebel leaders in the Fire Nation, so my mom let her boyfriend stay over. She thought that she was being all sneaky, not letting me see him, but I knew he was there.

"It just so happened that my dad came home early from his trip to find them going all out on my parents bed. I think the most horrific part was when my dad didn't stop them, but he actually joined in."

"Okay! I think that's a little too much information!"

"Whatever. Anyways, two weeks after that, my mom went missing. My dad didn't really care, but he disappeared the next week. Soon, my brothers came home to learn that I had been living by myself for the past 3 weeks, going to balls and meetings in my parents' place. But, they too randomly disappeared, once again leaving me home alone. By now, it was summer, so I moved into our summer home. I heard news that someone had broken into our main house while I first got settled into the summer home. That's when the ransom and death notes started appearing." There was a collective gasp when we heard her say this. She just stood there and nodded solemnly.

"At first, they just wanted outrageous amounts of money for my family. I don't think they liked it when I sent back a response with a tip on how to correctly hold hostages. They continually threatened to kill someone unless I gave them the money. I foolishly believed that they wouldn't do anything to my family. Until the first body was dump on my doorstep. It was my oldest brother. He had been mutilated almost beyond recognition." Yet another collective gasp. We were getting good at this.

She continued on, " I tried to keep my head, but it wasn't working so well. My mother's assistant had to keep me from sending out guards to find those people and murder them. I mean, those guys were so dumb that they put a return address on all their notes that they sent me. Always the same place. Not to mention my brother's body came with another note with the return address.

"One night, about a week after the body arrived, I snuck out to go visit the warehouse where they were holding the remainder of my family captive. On my way out, I saw two guys holding what looked like a drunken comrade that passed out between them. When I looked closer, I saw it was my dad. Dead. Being brought to my doorstep, like my brother. Quickly, I dispatched the two that were holding him up, and ran to him. He was as dead as a doornail, but I still tried to wake him up.

"After checking the other two bodies for anything useful, I swiftly continued on my way to the warehouse. I found it in no time because it practically screamed "hide people here!". So, I waltzed right in, knocked out a couple of guards, killed a few more, and tortured one to tell me where my mom and my other brother were being held. Once I found them, I made them run with me to another one of our summer houses. Before I had left, I made an order to have all of our stuff taken there. But, that was before I knew that my dad was already dead.

"When we finally arrived both my mother and brother were as white as sheets, panting, even though we really hadn't gone that far. They were way skinner than I had ever seen them, my mother more so than my brother. Neither of them looked like they has been fed a good meal in the past 11 weeks. I helped them into their rooms, and got them some food ready. By the time that I had gotten back to my mother's room, she had died. She didn't have enough of anything to support herself, so she just died. Her body just gave out.

"My brother stayed with me longer, but he died a week later. The kidnappers had beaten him and my other brother while in their custody, so he had internal bleeding that none of us knew about. I lost all of my family within 3 months. But, that was all last year. Not that long ago, I heard that they people who set up the entire operation were still alive and in the Fire Nation, so I came as quickly as I could. The only reason why I came here is because now I am the head of the Xue household, a very diplomatic household, and I require a guest bedroom while I think of my plans to get revenge on those sick, twisted people."

"Well, you can stay here as long as you want or need to Revanche. But, I have one question, why are you so intent on getting your revenge?" Zuko asked, obviously curious.

"Yeah," Sokka said from his chair. "Is revenge your middle name or something?" He added sarcastically.

"No," Revanche said with a huge smirk on her face. "It's actually my first name."

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><p>AN: Sorry for taking an incredibly long time for updating this. But, here it is! Shiny and new! I shall now start chapter 5 before people kill me for my lateness. BTW Revanche means 'revenge' in Fench.


	5. Chapter 5 Revanche's Revenge:The Capture

Disclaimer: Do I really have to say this every chapter, one-shot, etc.? I OWN NOTHING!

Chapter 5: Revanche's Revenge: Part One: The Capture

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><p>Sokka had a confused look on his face. "I thought that your first name was Revanche..."<p>

Revanche face-palmed, and it was audible. "Revanche means 'revenge'. So, my first name is indeed revenge." His face went from confused to understanding. "OOOHHHH! I get it now!" We all sighed in defeat.

Zuko stood up and left to get a room arranged for her. I stepped up to her and asked, "Do you want help finding those guys? We can always help. Believe it or not, we have connections that can lead to people like that." When I said 'we' I really meant Toph. Because she was the Blind Bandit, she had connections in low places. I bet that they could find some dirt or look into the guys that Revanche was looking for.

"Well, I'll need help finding them, and it's always nice to have back-up when you are going on a murder mission. So you can help. Under one condition: _I_ get to kill them. You guys can take out all the guards that you want, just leave those two alone." She said it so seriously and sternly that we couldn't do anything except nod and agree with her. Even Toph had nothing to say, which was odd. Zuko picked the perfect moment to walk in. The silence had started to get awkward, because no one wanted to talk after Revanche willingly admitted that she wanted to murder two people.

"So, I gave you a very nice room. It has a view of all of the city, and you can kinda see the ocean. If you brought any clothing or housewares or whatever, just tell a servant to take it to your room. Please follow me. I shall show you where it is at."

Everyone got up and followed Zuko, even though the invitation was really only for Revanche. He lead us down a corridor, into the North Wing. Her room was on the right side, first door. All of the rooms in the North Wing were guest rooms, but they were hardly ever used. Normally, the other three wings were filled up before we used the north. It just lays empty, unless we know someone is staying for a long time. That's usually what the North Wing was used for.

She walked into the room, spun in a slow circle, then walked out. "It'll do. Not as fancy as my rooms back home, but it'll do."

"Dinner will be served at 6. Do you want to accompany us back to the living room, or would you rather stay and get settled?" Zuko asked, still trying to be a polite host, ignoring the comment about the room.

"I think I'll join you guys. We still need to talk about the plans for the next couple of weeks, so we might as well do that whilst we are waiting for food to be made." Zuko didn't understand what she meant by "plans", but he nodded and went along with it.

We were walking back when there was a ginormous crash, I ran as fast as I could towards the sound, sprinting ahead of everyone else. I was hoping that it was just one of the servants dropping like 50,000 plates, not what I was thinking it was. As I rounded the last corner, I slid into a defensive stance, not sure of what I would find.

There, among 50,000 broken dishes, were two men, heavily armed and earthbending. I thought that they were random people trying to break into the palace until Revanche came around the corner. Mid-way through freezing their feet to the ground with dirty dish water, they became suddenly more murderous and tried hard to escape. Revanche slipped into an offensive stance and threw rock after rock at them. They were easily deflecting them, but not for long.

I sent ice daggers, ice sheets, and water whips as often as I could have. Revanche didn't object, but she didn't look too happy about it either. She seemed to be the only reason why the people were there. They both tried to fight both of us at the same time, but were overpowered after a few seconds. She bound them deep into the earth, and almost killed them, but I stopped her before she could.

"Wait! Don't kill them! We need to know why they are here!" She glared at the men, then turned to me. She seemed pretty pissed off.

"Fine, but once they've expended their worth, I get to kill them." By that time, everyone else had arrives. They must have been too shocked to have their bodies respond immediately. Sokka had his boomerang raised, ready to fight. He became disappointed when he saw that he wasn't needed.

Revanche promptly knocked both of the men out with a flick of her fingers. She stomped angrily out of the kitchen, nostrils flaring. The rest of us stood shocked. First, someone had broken into the palace. Well, before that, someone had tracked down Revanche, and followed her all the way to the palace. They had to have been following her enough to have known where she was going in order to plan an attack on the palace. Not a very good attack, but an attack nonetheless. If they hadn't have broken into the kitchen, and broken many dishes in the process, we never have been able to find them. Now, Revanche demanded that we find their bosses and murder them. She went from being moderately happy to completely pissed off. But, she was one step closer to her goal. And once these guys were interviewed, we would be closer. Plus, Revanche could kill them, and blow off some steam.

Sokka looked incapable of speech. I don't think even his instincts could have said anything. Zuko had a shocked look on his face, but both Toph and Zafirah has neutral looks. My face, I have no idea, but I knew that my thoughts were running at a million miles an hour. I needed to know, in about the next thirty seconds, where we would put the men, how we could hide them from the rest of the house, a schedule of feeding them, and proper restraints so they wouldn't break free. The basement would probably be the best place to put them. It has all those cells anyway. Not that they are very comfortable. There was earth around, but there was also metal. If we could just make them completely metal, then they would be caged in. The only metalbender I knew is Toph, but Revanche could also very well be powerful enough to bend metal. Those guys were dumb enough to break into the freakin' palace, so I doubt, even if they were smart enough, that they wouldn't be able to do it.

"Toph!" I said. "Unbind these guys. Sokka, Zuko, take the guy on the right. Zafirah, help me with this one. We're taking to the dungeon... Basement... Thing. You know what I'm talking about! Now, forward march! Come on men! Use those muscles! Lift with your knees, not your backs! Or is it the other way around? I can't remember!"

We half-carried, half-dragged the guys down. After a couple minutes of bickering, we finally decided to put them in different cells, on opposite sides, with three cells in between them. That way, they would have to yell in order to talk, which would alert the guards that we would put on duty. Plus, Toph managed to make their cells completely out of the metal from the old doors. It looked like, when you were caged in, there was no door. Toph made it so the door would should shut seamlessly. You would be stuck in a solid metal box for who knows how long. I was rather proud to think that it was all my idea. Now, what were we going to do about these men once they woke up?

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><p>AN: Happy remind-me-constantly-that-I-am-single-day! I put this one up faster, cause I did. Just to let you know, I would have had this up earlier if not for about 4 things. 1. Older sister who "needs the computer to do homework" 2. "Grocery shopping" 3. Mom needs to "check her e-mail" And finally, 4. Zutarain123 needs "to eat in order to stay alive." What a bunch of crap. AND! If any of you noticed that some characters are gone, remember that, because it may just come back in the story...


	6. Chapter 6: Revanche's Revenge: Part 2

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Chapter 6: Revanche's Revenge: Part 2: The Interrogation

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><p>We walked back upstairs and I looked for Revanche. She wasn't anywhere that she would normally be; in her room, the kitchen, or the gardens. I thought that she might be with Iroh, but I couldn't seem to find him either. As I thought more about it, I hadn't seen Aang or Suki in a while. It was like they disappeared off the face of the Earth. When I was sprinting through some hallways (who knows who or what could be in the palace now), I realized that Aang had been gone the longest, then Iroh, and then Suki. That left only Sokka, Toph, Zuko, Zafirah, Revanche, and me.<p>

The thought of having people disappear was scaring me. Why would someone do that? Who could do that with it weighing on their conscience? I slowed down to think it through completely. I rounded a corner and smacked into Revanche. So, Revanche hadn't been taken.

We fell over dramatically to the ground, with me landing gracefully on my face. Somehow, I managed to do a 180 flip while in the air. She landed on her feet, because she has had more practice with falling than I have.

"Revanche! Have you seen Aang in a while?" I hurriedly asked her, desperate for my idea to be wrong.

"Well, I haven't seen him since... I can't remember. Why? Did he shrink doing his household duties again?" She brushed herself off and helped me up. My head spun when I go on my feet, so I clutched on to Revanche's arm to steady myself.

"I fear that he has been taken. Him, Iroh, Suki, and Toph. None of them have yet to show their faces in a while. Those burglar guys might have taken more than our sense of security, hope, and love of a family. And there might have been more than the two that we caught. What if they were taken? Revanche, what are we going to do? I mean, they could be lost to us forever. NO! Toph and Aang were so young! Well, Aang is 112, technically, and Suki is still only like 15 or something. And Iroh! He wasn't very young, but he still has some years left in him! OH NOES! WHAT ARE WE-"

"Woah, Katara! Slow down! This may just be some freaky coincidence! Those happen more often than people getting taken. How about we go look for them before flipping out and saying that they've been kidnapped by the strange men that were sent here to kill me?" Though her words were slightly sarcastic, they calmed me down enough so that I could focus on what we should do instead of the wild, crazy ideas that popped into my head.

We took a walk around the palace and didn't find any of our missing people. Though, we did find a very strange sculpture in Iroh's private garden. Now, we both knew why it was private. It was so disturbing that I won't even take the time to describe it.

After searching the palace vigorously a few more times, we found our non-missing people out in the gardens. They gathered around an oak tree, and were whispering conspicuously. I crept up slowly and listened in on their conversations.

"First, the gummy bears came. Then, the gummy WORMS. All at once, they started eating each other. The music was slow, almost a tango," Zuko said. I really hoped they hadn't gotten into some sort of cactus juice.

"Ahem," I cleared my throat. They all turned and looked at me. "Okay, Revanche and I have been doing some thinking, walking, and searching. We've figured out that people have either been going on surprise mini-vacations without telling us, or they've been taken. We need to figure out why this is happening." We sat in silence for some time, thinking. Why would someone take them? As a threat? Some sort of a sign? But, why? What have any of us done? Really, the only logical answers were these; Aang was being stalked by someone who wanted to assassinate him; the same for Iroh and Zuko; Toph had some creepers following her or; Revanche's guys.

I shared my ideas with the remainder of our group. No one really looked convinced about any of them. I ran over the list in my head. The Aang thing was out, no one really cared about the Avatar anymore. Because Zuko and I got married, people stopped targeting him and Iroh. Those two were out. That leaves Revanche and Toph. Toph's seemed plausible, taking the people she was closest with, until you got to Suki. Toph just really, tolerated Suki. They weren't they best of friends. So, Toph was out. Therefore, Revanche was the only one left. And it made sense. Take out the people that were helping her find them. First, with the two guys that we had in the basement, then taking people that were the most dangerous. They should have taken me first, then. I did figure out their plan, basically. Revanche would have been the only one left, then they would have make a big scene and probably killed her.

"Guys, I know that it's seemingly random, but one of us is next. We need to get to the bottom of this. We need answers. And I know just the people to ask. I need the strongest and scariest people to come with me. Zuko, Revanche, Zafirah, you're going down with me. Sokka, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to stay here."

"Wait," Zafirah said. "If he gets taken, we lose another person. But, if we stay together, maybe later we can use him as bait." Sokka shouted a disagreement here, but we all ignored him. She continued on, "Then, we may be able to follow them to where they are keeping the others. Let's just hope that no one dies before we can get there." We were given a grim reminder of just what those guys could do.

"Let's go gang!" I made it sound like we were a bunch of mystery solving teenagers or something.

We walked down to the dungeons in a big group. Everyone was constantly checking and re-checking that we had 5 people in our group. When we got to the cells, we split up in two groups. Zafirah and I were questioning one guy while the other three did the other one. The plan was that after a complete interrogation, we would compare what the people said, and interview the other person. If their stories didn't add up, then we would use the "scare tactic". That's where all of us would pile into a cell, and force the answer out of them. If they changed or stayed to their story, we would probably know the truth. And who was lying to save the other's backside.

When Zafirah and I walked into the first guy's room, he was asleep. We shoved him awake and put his head up. Just as I was about to ask him my first question, the other three busted into the room. Their eyes were all big and they were panting as if they had run a marathon in under two hours.

"The... other... guy... is dead... We walked in and... We kicked him and he rolled over...

His tongue was black. What do we do now?" Zuko said, regaining his breath as he spoke.

"What? Johnny Pat is dead? No! My life! It's over! He was my one true love!" The person who we thought was a man wailed. Now that we looked closer, he was indeed a woman. Huh. Never saw that coming.

"Okay, so now that Johnny is dead, are you going to tell us everything that you know, or do you want to end up not quite like Johnny, but you will wish you were."

Sue Ellen agreed to answer every question truthfully and quickly. We learned that they had people following Revanche from the moment that she became their target until that very moment. She said there was at least one or two people on her at any point in time. Though, she denied knowing anything about the kidnapping attempts. The only plan that she knew of was that she and Johnny were to kill all of them in one swoop. Obviously, that failed. If she did fail, and return, she would've had a fate worse than death. As long as she was being fed and had a place to sleep, she didn't care that we were still holding her. It was much better than what she could have gotten, had she gone back.

We left her alone to wallow in her self-pity to converse upstairs in the living room. I stood in the center of attention. "Okay, guys, now that we have this information, I have a plan!"

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><p>AN: So, is anyone mad at that long of a wait? Sorry, we moved and it was crazy there for a while. AND THEN, I lost my notebook that had the rest of the story planned out in it (ask awesomeliciousnes, it's true). But, I found it! I wrote most of this chapter in two hours! Yay! And, I'm doing Zutara week again this year, so don't expect an update too soon, just not as long as a wait as this one.


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